The present invention relates to apparatus for inspecting various articles, including containers, particularly such of the type lending itself to luggage inspection.
The recent high incidence of aircraft hijackings and other unlawful acts has prompted and necessitated the development of inspection systems for locating weapons in luggage so as to thwart such acts. Such systems generally have involved the use of x-rays but this leads to problems of shielding personnel and others from the irradiation. These problems also exist in various apparatus for inspecting various articles other than luggage.
One prior art inspection system employs an x-ray source that emits short pulses, or bursts, of radiation, each of such pulses not being of sufficient duration to provide a suitable read-out, or image, by itself. Therefore, it is necessary to employ an information storage system for receiving the various images of the inspected article produced by the respective pulses and storing the images for a time in order to permit adequate time to allow visual inspection thereof. This system is of limited desirability, however, at least because of the relatively high cost necessitated by the need for a short pulse generator and a relatively elaborate image storage system.
The apparatus of the present invention overcomes these disadvantages and provides a safe, reliable system that provides other significant advantages. The apparatus also provides means for achieving a pre-determined spacing between consecutive articles traveling on a material handling system.